Intendants since 1900

1912 – 1914Robert Volkner - planned another world premiere of a work by Schreker - Das Spielwerk und die Prinzessin/The Music Box and the Princess..

1917 – 1920Karl Zeiss - despite strong resistence he brought Rudi Stephan’s opera Die ersten Menschen/The First People to the stage for the first time. This was followed by two world premieres of Franz Schreker’s opera: Die Gezeichneten/The Signified and Der Schatzgräber/The Treasure Seeker.

1924 - 1929Clemens Krauss - he and director Lothar Wallerstein established a new production orientated music theatre. The Ensemble included great singers including Benno Ziegler, Rudolf Brinkmann and Adele Kern.

1929 - 1933Josef Thurnau - he continued the innovative theatre begun by his predecessors: Max Brands Maschinist Hopkins received its world permiere, as did Arnold Schönberg’s Von heute auf morgen/From One Day to the Next.

1933 - 1944Hans Meissner - Many artists and other people who worked at the theatre with Jewish backgrounds were suspended while he was General Intendant. Meissner stayed in his post until the end of the Third Reich. Modern music during this time was regarded as "degenerate".

1945 - 1951 Bruno Vondenhoff - Opera Intendant and General Music Director after the war. During his time in Frankfurt, which was dominated by continuous struggle to get the theatre re-built, he conducted many works that had never been performed in Germany before, including Alban Berg’s violin concerto, Frank Martin’s Golgatha and Paul Hindemith’s Vier Temperamente/Four Temperaments.

1951 - 1967Harry Buckwitz (General Intendant, General Music Directors during this time: Georg Solti 1952 - 1961; Lovro von Matacic 1961 - 1966; Theodore Bloomfield 1966 - 1968), Harry Buckwitz received congratulations from all over the world, including word from Thomas Mann, Berthold Brecht and Albert Schweitzer, after the first performance in the new theatre : Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.

1977 - 1987Michael Gielen - he set stardards for new music theatre that were to last for many years: a new, trail-blazing way of treating traditional repertoire was born. Productions by Hans Neuenfels, Ruth Berghaus, Herbert Wernicke, Alfred Kirchner and Christof Nel drew the attention of the international music world to Frankfurt.

1987 - 1990Gary Bertini - the fly tower was destroyed by an arsonist a few months into his Intendanz. Opera was performed in the Schauspielhaus next door until the building was re-built, and plays were put on in the hastily adapted Bockenheimer Depot. Gary Bertini stood down in 1990. Martin Steinhoff and Hans Peter Doll ran the theatre together until 1992.

1990 - 1993Hans Peter Doll - the re-opening of the theatre was celebrated on the morning of April 6th 1991 with a world premiere concert performance of Hans Werner Henze’s La selva in cantata/Cursed Wilderness under his Intendanz. The first performance since the fire, Die Zauberflöte, took place on stage that same evening.

1993 - 1996Sylvain Cambreling - is General Music Director and Artistic Intendant of the Opera. He and his General Manager Intendant Martin Steinhoff regularly engaged directors Christoph Marthaler and Peter Musbach. Many co-productions with the Théâtre de la Monnaie and Salzburg Festival enriched the planning. Sylvain Cambreling left the house in 1996.

1997 - 2002Martin Steinhoff is Intendant of Oper Frankfurt and Paolo Carignani is General Music Director. The tradition begun at the beginning of the century was re-established and works performed by contemporary composers, including Hans Werner Henzes’ Boulevard Solitude and Venus und Adonis, Wolfgang Rihm’s Jakob Lenz and Die Eroberung von Mexiko/The Conquest of Mexico, Heinz Holliger’s Schneewittchen/Snow White, Gregory Fried’s Tagebuch/Diary of Anne Frank and Adriana Hölszki’s Die Wände/The Walls.

2002 - heuteBernd Loebe - after his first season as Intendant Oper Frankfurt was voted „Opera House of the Year“ by Opernwelt Magazine and has maintained a top place in the ratings in Germany and elsewhere ever since: it was voted Best Theatre by »Die deutsche Bühne« magazine for the 2008/09 and 2009/10 seasons. Paolo Carignani left Oper Frankfurt after almost ten years as General Music Director at the end of the 2007/08 season with a performance of Beethoven’s Fidelio. He was succeeded in 2008/2009 by Sebastian Weigle, whose first new production in this post was Aribert Reimann’s Lear.